Fitness or skill?

As a follow on from my earlier Tweet "It baffles me that some skills coaches out there still overlook the importance of S&C training. An unfit team will not succeed" heres my opinion on the whole matter.


Skills are clearly vital to a team winning but fitness is the key to success.

I have personally seen many athletes who are very talented and who's skill level is far above their peers but it was their fitness that let them down and caused them to not make the big time. The players who do make it are the all-rounder's who have a good skill set but who are also are well conditioned. As a coach I would always take a team of well conditioned players over a team of players who are highly skilful because when it really comes down to the last game of the play-offs or cup final it is the fit players who have the gas to go the whole game and execute the winning play at the very end.

The best example of fitness directly contributing to success is the USA men's ice hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. In my personal opinion Herb Brooks is the greatest coach ever in the history of ice hockey and that is for a number of reasons but one key aspect was his appreciation for conditioning. 

'He believed that talent could win a lot of games, but he also believed that there was no excuse for being out-conditioned’ (Gilbert, 2008).

Brooks wanted his players to be able to cope when things got ugly during games and still dominate games with their technical skills. Brooks not only applied this ethic to the 1980 team but throughout his coaching career. Brooks never built his teams on having the most talented players or the top scorers. He selected the players most willing to skate hard and fast, and those who fit together as a whole and showed the right attitude he was looking for. Brooks often linked effort with success, which is why he viewed conditioning as a vital part of the USA’s success in 1980. If the team hadn’t been so well conditioned and built upon a hard working ethos then it is unlikely they could have performed to the level they did against the USSR.

My favourite quote from Brooks and one that I have repeated a number of times to players has got to be; ‘think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone’ (Do you believe in miracles?, 2001). I find that a lot of young players who are simply very talented need a serious wake up call because being able to dance round guys just doesn't cut it at the top level. I may be a little bias but I think conditioning should always come before individual skills training as evidence shows fitness and effort are directly linked to success. Skills may win games but it is fitness wins championships and is what makes a team successful.




References

Do you believe in miracles?: The story of the 1980 U.S. hockey team, 2001. [DVD] USA:  HBO.

Gilbert, J. 2008. Herb Brooks: The inside story of a hockey mastermind. Minnesota: MVP Books.